In this episode of The Dive Locker Podcast we explore the importance and benefits about having a painstaking hiring process.

Welcome To The Show!

Welcome to The Dive Locker Podcast, the podcast for dive professionals where we bring you the latest in diving industry resources that make you excellent at teaching techniques, risk management and dive business.

For most of us listening we are now approaching Spring and Summer. That means dive season is upon us. And many dive shops, dive centers, resorts, liveaboards, and charter operations are actively hiring dive professionals.

But who you hire is absolutely critical to the success of your dive business. And that is because employees are the contributing force behind a workplace culture. And workplace cultures can be thriving places to work where customers love to be, or they can be toxic environments with high turnover and poor customer reviews which will lead to low customer involvement.

So today I’m gonna share why and how you can be ridiculously painstaking in the hiring process. Although that doesn’t sound feasible, it is. But the biggest thing is the benefits are tremendous – your employees will love it, your customers will appreciate it, and you will be on your way to a strong workplace culture.

This episode isn’t just for dive operators who are hiring. This episode is for everyone listening who has any hiring decision making at all in any business.

What’s Your Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture is the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. Famous financial guru Peter Drucker once said “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. It was business author Ken Blanchard who added to Druckers quote saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s how important culture is in a business.”

Now what you have to recognize here is by the formal definition of organizational culture it is specifically human. The only way you get a social and psychological environment in a business is through people. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and seen dirty tables and trash on the floor? Well, there’s are reason for that, and it’s employees not doing their jobs. Right their you have ascertained that the workplace culture at that restaurant isn’t healthy. Again, this is a people thing. That’s why getting the right people is critical to the success of any workplace.

The Hiring Process Supports Your Culture

In his book The Culture Code, New York Times Bestselling Author Daniel Coyle points out numerous areas that companies with great organizational cultures thrive. And one of the areas he discusses is in the hiring process. He says this, “Be painstaking in the hiring process. Deciding who’s in and who’s out is the most powerful signal any group sends, and successful groups approach their hiring accordingly. Most have built lengthy, demanding processes that seek to assess fit, contribution (through deep background research and extensive interactions with a large number of people in the group), and performance (increasingly measured by tests). Some groups, like Zappos, have added an extra layer of belonging cues: after training is complete, they offer trainees a $2,000 bonus if they quit (about 10 percent of the trainees accept the offer).”

The powerful signal he is talking about is the focus on keeping the culture strong for everyone on the team. Employees are so thankful for this and it increases their job satisfaction in the workplace. Also notice he mentioned that these strong workplace culture groups also had new employees interacting with large numbers of people. Interesting, this is not just an interview with the owner, or an HR manager. Nope it’s a team approach. And here’s why.

Everyone Needs To Be Involved

Coyle goes on to highlight another aspect of groups with strong cultures, he says “make sure everyone has a voice” He goes on to highlight how some companies have policies where everyone must speak up on an issue at a staff meeting. Or hosting regular forums for employees to be heard.

Now when you combine the two together that is where the magic takes place. With some special forces groups, there are legendary methods of posting photos of candidates in the halls of the training center whereby the team gets to select its leaders. Placing sticky notes on the photos, with comments, sets a stage of trust in the hiring process. Allowing those with the most experience and contact with the individuals, to participate heavily in the hiring process.

Items In This Episode

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Thanks For Listening!

That’s it for today, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher, that way you’ll be notified of new episodes as soon as they go live and please leave a rating. Items talked about in this episode can be found on the show notes Page at scubaguru.com . There you can also click the microphone and leave us a comment. Thanks again. We’ll see you in the next episode. Safe diving and take good care of my friends.

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